Wednesday, February 8, 2012

UC Berkeley Buys XXX Domain Names in Order to Protect Itself

Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 4:31 PM

In an effort to gird itself against public humiliation, UC Berkeley just went on a preemptive XXX buying spree, purchasing six trademarked web domains — ucberkeley.xxx, universityofcaliforniaberkeley.xxx, uc-berkeley.xxx, universityofcalifornia-berkeley.xxx, goldenbears.xxx and cal.xxx — at $200 apiece, The Daily Cal reports. And apparently, it's not the first school to do so. As soon as the ICM registry put adult web addresses on the market in December, universities rushed to block them. Some, like the University of Kansas, began purchasing domains as early as October. (ICM gave trademark holders the ability to buy early, lest these domains go to a cyber mercenary and be held for "high-dollar ransom," wrote USA Today reporter Mike Snider.) Thus, schools across the country found themselves in a rather awkward and improbable line of business. Adult domains don't come cheap — UC Berkeley has already paid a total of $1,300, and the name gay.xxx sold to film production studio Corbin Fisher for a hefty $500,000, Snider wrote — but an unsullied reputation is evidently worth the price.